Tuesday, June 28, 2011

First I want to thank all of you for following my hair journey. Truly, you all don't know how much your kind words and words of encouragement have meant to me on my hair journey. I am 3 months shy of my 5 year natural hair anniversary and I still remember my big chop as if it happened yesterday. So thank you thank you thank you for everything! Whether you know it or not, you are the reason why I am still natural today.

Yes you! The only real support I found was from the online support system that we have in the natural hair community and I really appreciate all that you all have shared and continue to share with all of us. And yes, you will hear this same speech again in 3 months when I officially celebrate my 5 year anniversary lol.

God willing, a vid will be coming soon! Hopefully real soon. Right now I am still test driving a lot of video editing softwares. I use to use final cut pro back in the day and loved it but it is exclusively for mac and I don't have a mac (not a fan). So yeah, hopefully in the next few days it will be available.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

If you have been following me on twitter or on facebook, then you would know I have been dropping little hints that I was working on an official youtube debut. I finally uploaded my first live youtube video this morning :) (finally though right lol! What took so long??!?!)

I must admit, it is nothing special, the editing program I used sucks (and had the nerve to put its trial message at the top of the video once it finalized itself) but hey, we all have to start from somewhere. So if you are just curious to know how I sound like or just how goofy I really am, take a second to check it out!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Question: Please could you explain what hair manipulation is? Also how do you keep your twists so neat for so long? That joy seems to be beyond me. At the moment I can't even keep twists in for more than a night and then I just take them out and wear a twistout. Do you wash/co-wash your hair whilst you've got your twists in? How?

-Abii

My Response:

Hi Abii :)

Hair manipulation means to touch or mess with ones hair. So when I say that I do not manipulate my hair that often, it means that I do not comb, brush, or change my hairstyles constantly. But how much is too much manipulation varies from person to person. For me, manipulating my hair too much means combing (detangling) it everyday, and heck, even once a week. For some people, once a week works for them. As I said earlier, it also means styling your hair too much. For me and my hair, styling my hair too much can be going from twists to braids and back to twists again all in the same week.If I manipulate my hair too much, it can lead to breakage or mechanical damage to the hair strands.

B)How do you keep your twists so neat for so long. That joy seems to be beyond me. At the moment I can't even keep twists in for more than a night and then I just take them out and wear a twistout. Do you wash/co-wash your hair whilst you've got your twists in? How?

You sound like my boyfriend. He has a hard time keeping twists in his hair. Have you tried doing them smaller? Sometimes smaller twists will hold better than bigger ones.
But trust me, it took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to keep my twists frizz free for long periods of time. I learned that the best way for me to keep my twists looking neat is to not manipulate (there goes that term again) my hair that often. When my hair is wet, or if I just spritzed it with my moisturizer, I don't immediately style it right afterward. I give it time to dry and then style it. I also sleep on my stomach, and not directly on the style. That helps a lot. I also don't rinse my hair much while it is in twists, if at all. And that has nothing to do with frizz, but because my hair easily tangles when I rinse too much.

When I do rinse or cowash (conditioner wash) my twists I use the pads of my fingers to massage my scalp but I try not to disturb (or manipulate) my twists that much. That helps to preserve the style. Once again, I try to refrain from vigorously rubbing my hair while it is wet. When you manipulate the hair a lot while it is wet, it can make your hairstyle become very frizzy or fuzzy.

I hope that answered your question! If any of you have a question that you would like answered, please don't hesitate to ask them in the Got Questions? section of Frostoppa.com located at the very top of the page.

If you are avoiding -cones, then you may not like this conditioner too much because the third ingredient is cyclopentasiloxane which is also cyclomethicone (please don't make me spell that again. We are going to call it cyclo from here on out). Personally, I don't mind using cyclo in this conditioner because I am only using it to detangle with. As soon as I am done detangling, I am shampooing my hair anyway so the -cone will be removed from my hair.

I must admit that all of the scare talk from when I first went natural in 2006 still has an effect on how I view -cones. But I have seen dermatologists recommend the use of -cones in scientific articles published on the AAD webpage so I do not believe that they are really all that bad as we have scared ourselves into believing. I believe that -cones are beneficial for conditioning, smoothing, and reducing friction between hair strands. And cyclo is a -cone that gives great slip and that is exactly why I love this Suave Shea Butter and Almond conditioner for detangling.

The slip on this conditioner is nice. I'm use of just using my coconut oil and aloe vera juice to detangle with, which was okay. It got me through almost a full year of detangling my hair. But honestly, it took too long just using those two things and with my hair getting longer and longer, my detangling time is increasing exponentially. I have used conditioners in the past to detangle with, but they all usually have some protein in them that my hair does not like and my hair ended up becoming brittle over time. What I like about this conditioner is that there isn't any of the "wheat, silk, oat or soy" proteins that are normally in your cheaper, drugstore variety conditioners. This is a plus for me and my coarse hair. My hair hates those kinds of proteins and even panthenol, and no matter how much of it is in a product, it leaves my hair dry as a desert.

I also like the fact that this conditioner is very affordable. I tried using the Kinky Curly Knot Today for detangling because I had a bottle of the stuff I bought way back in 2008 that was collecting dust. But at about $11-12 a pop, it is really too costly to use just to detangle with on my budget. Maybe you are balling and can afford to but me-unh uh. I think I bought the Suave Shea Butter and Almond conditioner for about 1.44 at Kroger last year. If that is not affordable, I don't know what is!

Below is a few cons of this product as well as the pros again:

Cons:
Watered down, very watery as compared to other conditioners. But what do you expect for a product that costs under $4?
Has a -cone high up on the ingredient list (number 3) if you are trying to avoid -cones but this con is also the pro. The -cone used in this product is what provides the slip.
Scent may bother those with allergies. I am allergic to some scents but this does not trigger a reaction with me.

Pros
Readily available. You can find this at major retailers and drugstores such as Walgreen's, Walmart, Krogers, and Target
Good slip which helps to reduce friction between the hair strands when you are detangling
Cheap

And lastly, if you haven't noticed, I don't big up too many products. My hair hates just about everything that has ever touched it. But I really do like this conditioner (for detangling only, this is will not replace my beloved Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle rose in any way) and guess what: